Supplements
The interesting part isn’t the list. It’s which items are dosed to the range that was actually studied, which are well under it, and which are almost certainly doing nothing and stay in the cupboard out of habit.
N=1, not medical advice. This is one person’s log, tuned to one set of injuries and constraints. Nothing here is a recommendation.
Last updated . This page changes when something changes, not on a schedule.
How I grade evidence
| Grade | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Strong | Multiple randomised trials or a solid meta-analysis, consistent direction, in people broadly like me. |
| Moderate | Real trials, but small, mixed, short, or in a different population than mine. |
| Weak | Mechanism, animal work, or one small study. Kept only for a reason I can state out loud. |
The grade is about the ingredient. The verdict is about my dose of it, which is a different question and usually the more damning one.
The audit
| What | My dose | Studied dose | Evidence | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whey protein isolate | ~30 g daily | as needed for intake | Strong | Works. It’s food, not a supplement — the point is hitting a protein target, and it does. |
| Creatine monohydrate | 5 g daily, rest days included | 3–5 g daily | Strong | The one item here I’d defend without hedging. Correct dose, correct frequency, decades of evidence for strength and power. The cognitive claims are a long way weaker than the performance ones — I take it for the latter. |
| Omega-3 (EPA + DHA) | ~2 g, 4–5 days a week | 1–3 g daily | Moderate | Dose is in range. Two problems: I take it five days out of seven for no reason, and I have never verified the bottle is triglyceride form or third-party tested, which is most of what separates a good fish oil from an expensive one. |
| Vitamin D3 | 4000 IU every other day | 1000–4000 IU daily | Strong if deficient Weak if not |
I am guessing. Supplementing vitamin D without having measured it is the most common unforced error in this whole category, and I am currently making it. A blood test settles the dose; until then this is a number I picked. |
| Magnesium bisglycinate | 3 days a week | daily | Moderate | The supplement isn’t the problem, the adherence is. Magnesium’s effect on sleep is gradual and cumulative, not something you feel on the night. Three days out of seven is the wrong shape for a cumulative effect. Sleep is a stated priority, so this is the highest-leverage fix on the page. |
| Zinc | unknown | 15–30 mg elemental | Moderate | I cannot grade what I cannot identify. I don’t know the form or the dose — and form matters, since oxide is poorly absorbed while bisglycinate and citrate are not. Long-term high doses also displace copper. Reading the label is a two-minute job I keep not doing. |
| Ashwagandha, loose root powder | ~500–800 mg raw root | 600 mg standardised extract | Moderate at the studied dose | Doing nothing. The trials use standardised extracts concentrated for withanolides. Raw root powder at a similar milligram figure contains a small fraction of the active compounds. The number looks comparable and isn’t. |
| Lion’s mane, loose powder | a quarter teaspoon | 1–3 g of fruiting body | Weak | Doing nothing. The evidence is thin even for a good product at a proper dose, and most cheap powders are mycelium grown on grain, which is largely starch. Two strikes. |
| Spirulina | a quarter teaspoon, weekly | 3–10 g daily | Weak | Decoration. Under a gram a week against a studied 20–70 g a week. It changes the colour of my breakfast and nothing else. |
| Digestive enzymes | situational, heavy meals | — | Weak | Occasional and harmless. I make no claim for it. |
The summary I’d rather not write
Of ten things I take, two are unambiguously earning their place — creatine and whey. Two more would be if I fixed something simple: magnesium needs to be daily, and vitamin D needs a blood test rather than a guess. One I cannot assess because I have never read the label. And three — ashwagandha, lion’s mane, spirulina — are almost certainly inert as I take them.
That last group is the interesting one, because none of them are in the cupboard by accident. Each was added deliberately, for a plausible reason, at a dose that looked like the one in the study. The gap between "500 mg of raw root" and "600 mg of standardised extract" is invisible unless you go looking, and I didn’t, for months.
The pattern worth stealing, if any of this is useful to you: write your dose in one column and the dose from the trials in the next. Most supplement disappointment lives in the gap between those two numbers, not in whether the ingredient works.
What I deliberately don’t take
- BCAAs and EAAs — redundant when total protein intake is adequate, which it is.
- Pre-workout stimulants — I train at half past seven and want to sleep that night. Coffee already covers it and stops at midday.
- Multivitamin — a shotgun where I’d rather use a rifle. If a blood test shows something low, I’ll treat that thing.
- Glutamine — the evidence for healthy, well-fed people is thin.
- Beta-alanine, citrulline — real effects, but on high-intensity work in the one-to-four-minute range. That’s not what my sessions are.
What’s missing
- Vitamin K2 — commonly paired with D3, and more relevant if the D3 dose goes up after testing. Not added yet, and I’d want to see the D result first.
- B12 — possibly worth testing for, but supplementing it blind would repeat exactly the mistake I’m already making with vitamin D.
Questions this page answers
Is creatine worth taking?
It is the one item on this page I’d defend without hedging. 5 g daily, rest days included, is the dose the trials use, and the evidence for strength and power goes back decades. I take it for that; the cognitive claims are a long way weaker.
Does loose ashwagandha root work the way the studies say?
Not as I take it. The trials use extracts standardised for withanolides, and raw root powder at a similar milligram figure contains a small fraction of the active compounds. The number looks comparable and isn’t — ~500–800 mg of raw root against 600 mg of standardised extract.
Is it a problem to take vitamin D without testing first?
It is the most common unforced error in this whole category, and I am currently making it. 4000 IU every other day is a number I picked, not one anything measured. A blood test settles the dose; until then I am guessing.
Does the form of zinc matter?
Yes. Oxide is poorly absorbed while bisglycinate and citrate are not, and long-term high doses displace copper. I cannot grade mine because I have never read the label, which is a two-minute job I keep not doing.
Why is magnesium three days a week a problem?
Magnesium’s effect on sleep is gradual and cumulative, not something you feel on the night. Three days out of seven is the wrong shape for a cumulative effect, so the supplement isn’t the problem — the adherence is.
How do you tell whether a supplement is doing anything?
Write your dose in one column and the dose from the trials in the next. Most supplement disappointment lives in the gap between those two numbers rather than in whether the ingredient works at all.
What isn’t working
- No blood test. Every open question on this page — the D3 dose, the B12 question, whether any of this is working — resolves with one panel, and I keep not booking it. That is the single biggest gap here, and it isn’t a supplement.
- Three labels unread. Zinc form, magnesium elemental content, whether the fish oil is triglyceride form and tested. Ten minutes of work standing at a cupboard would turn three question marks into facts.
- The dead weight is still in the routine. Knowing that ashwagandha, lion’s mane and spirulina are inert as I take them hasn’t made me either upgrade them to clinical-grade products or throw them out. They go into the oats every morning regardless, which is the definition of a habit outliving its reason.